Toothless tigers, wounded elephants

......Yet the similes abound. Three months after the Wall Street crisis, The Economist of London was calling India “An Elephant, not a Tiger”. In 2011, hoping to resurrect India in the eyes of investors, RBI Governor D. Subbarao in 2011 spoke of “Rejigging the elephant dance.” Mixing metaphors merrily, the Governor reminded the audience: “But the elephant dance got interrupted by the ‘zoo party’ of the global financial crisis and to get it back on course, we need to rejig the dance.” We now have RBI Deputy Governor K.C. Chakrabarty titling his speech: “Transit Path for Indian Economy: Six Steps for Transforming an Elephant into a Tiger.”........

Read - HBL

Bank credit not fundamental right, says RBI deputy guv

“You may open bank accounts, you may provide some remittance facilities, you may also provide some emergency overdraft or consumption credit. But, bank credit per se cannot be a fundamental right,”

Read - TOI

Banking as a fundamental right of the people ! - K C Chakrabarty

..............Having said that, I would admit that I have come here with a vested interest. Vested interest in the sense that the subject you have selected for this seminar is very close to my heart; to the hearts of the senior management in the Reserve Bank of India. Also, being in-charge of the administration and human resource in the Reserve Bank of India, which is the regulator of the entire banking system in India, we want a responsible and strong trade union system in the banks because we feel that strong trade unions are a pre-condition for strong managements in the banks. I will come back to this issue a little later. It is, indeed, very heartening to note that the AIBEA has organized this conference on the theme “Meeting the Challenges of the Decade”. In fact, this could very well have been titled “Meeting the Challenges of the Century”. The banking system is unlikely to face the kind of challenges that it has been facing for the last 4–5 years..............

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Inclusion drive taking baby steps

........The department of financial services and the Reserve Bank of India count a wider financial reach as one of their top priorities. They have been pushing banks to open more branches in rural India. Other than this, banks have on their hands UPA’s another pet theme – the direct cash transfer project. “All banks have 24 hours in a day and there is some expectation that the RBI has of them, something that the finance ministry has of them, something the cash transfers or Aadhar has of them. They are trying to cope up,”......

Read - DNA

Faux Pas in RBI Calendar, 2013

The Bank in its 2013 calendar had wrongly stated that “The Kolkata Town Hall” was built in 1913. The history of construction of this heritage building dates back to 1813 A.D. Printouts/publications by RBI or on behalf of RBI have high value in the society and no effort should be spared to make these items error free.

- Kishore Chakraborty, President, All India RBI OERS Pensioners' Forum

What to do when someone palms off a torn note to you

...............The Reserve Bank of India has proper guidelines, namely note refund rules. Banks refund your torn note according to those rules. But, before you show your fist to the banker, keep in mind that getting a refund is not your right. From the RBI’s part, it is just a gracious gesture...............

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Cutting bank interest for senior citizens: Can the FM cut the extra 1% given to bank employees?

Senior citizens, who have no voice, are the soft target for the government. However, the government is not bold enough to withdraw the extra interest of 1% given by banks to their present and past employees, as they have the capacity to shut the doors of banks through agitation and strikes........

.................This is the third time in the last six months that the finance ministry has stepped on the toes of the RBI by giving directives to PSBs on issues that is mainly the prerogative of the RBI. While RBI is keeping a steady silence, what is not desirable is dual control of banks, as this will only weaken the powers of the RBI and serve neither the interest of banks nor of the economy..........

Read - Moneylife

Pune CAB's RetireNet......................'

'Stick'ing to the net

College of Agricultural Banking, Pune is always in the forefront in taking welfare measures for the RBI Retirees. "Interaction with Pensioners"  in the month of November is a proud annual event organised by CAB. In last such event on 1st November 2012, Smt Meena Hemchandra, Principal while addressing the retirees gave a pleasant surprise by announcing that CAB would arrange a "Computer Introduction Workshop" for the benefit of retirees. Keeping its words, CAB conducted a one-day "Introductory / Basic Computer Training Class for Retired Staff Members" on 8th February 2013. Eighteen retirees of different ages including ninety year old (in fact young) Shri B.B.Vedak participated enthusiastically. The participants were enthralled at the introduction of the technique to the use of "Internet" for payments of bills, operation of bank accounts, opening of websites with hands-on experience, a new world about which they had only heard.  The formidable task of teaching these trainees with ebbing physical and mental abilities was handled with all finesse and patience by the Faculty Members S/Shri Sundar Murthy and Pramod Kumar Patel.  All the retirees expressed deep sense of gratitude to the Principal, Faculty Members and the support staff for embarking upon such a novel effort and making excellent arrangements for the same. While thanking the Principal, I look forward to CAB for more such programmes.

- L.V.Kulkarni, Secretary, Reserve Bank Retired Employees' Association, Pune 

Mission nonpareil...........

V feel proud of u......................

Flying high with dedication................

‘RBI issues revised policy guidelines under micro enterprise’

.....Raghubir Singh, LDO, RBI showed his concern on the financial inclusion programme and emphasized the importance GoI is associating with this programme. He further informed that revised policy guidelines have been issued by RBI under micro-enterprise as defined in the MSMED act. In view of the increase in price index and cost inputs, the limit has been revised, within the overall ceiling of Rs 25 lakh. 40% of the total advances to micro and small enterprise .........

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To reduce imports, Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd, RBI to enhance currency note facility

NASHIK: With an aim to reduce the import of paper for printing currency notes, the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd(SPMCIL) is setting up bank note paper manufacturing facilities at Mysore in a joint venture with the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Ltd (BRBNMPL), a subsidiary of RBI. The proposed bank note paper unit for manufacturing specially made paper for security printing is expected to start operation by December 2014............

Read - TOI

What’s holding us back from using mobile banking?

If data were to be believed, a lot of you would have graduated from using Internet banking to mobile banking already but a lot of us have still not made the leap. Though the number of transactions through mobile banking increased by 64% in the April-December 2012 period, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), 67% of overall banking transactions still happens through cash, according to a 2011 Deloitte-Assocham study. So what’s holding us back from using this mode of convenience in a big way?...........

Read - Mint

Trade unions call all-India strike for Feb 20, 21

.....The functioning of the power and transport sectors, oil industries, the RBI and other banks, insurance firms, posts and telecommunications, and information technology firms would be affected during the strike by the unions, .......

Read - The Hindu

Goa State Co-op Bank in the dock for ‘fraud’

........It may be recalled that NABARD had over the last five years, written strongly worded letters to the bank for its precarious financial position and for following One Time Settlement Scheme (OTS) that was not in accordance with RBI guidelines.........

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Fake notes flood Delhi

..........RBI Governor Dr Duvvuri Subbarao has also expressed his concern over fake currency notes circulating in the country. Speaking in a public outreach programme at Lalpur Karauta village in UP earlier this week he said: "We are facing one more problem and that is of fake currency notes. There are some criminal, unsocial elements who are involved in fraudulent activities. We are also trying to see that the police department is vigilant towards these fraudsters." .................

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Now, produce a movie with one rupee only

At a time when headline inflation is close to7%, a rupee may not fetch you much but it will certainly give you a chance to co-produce a movie.  You can now contribute as less as one rupee and become a co-producer of Kolkata based filmmaker's independent film―Diamonds In The Sky.............

Read | Business Standard

Lending Rates Need to Come Off for a Rebound

......This buttresses our view that growth is unlikely to bottom out unless lending rates come off. It is for this reason we expect the RBI to continue to ease liquidity via open market operations (OMO) or a 25 basis point cash reserve ratio (CRR) cut on March 19. It should also cut policy rates by another 50 basis points by June. This, in turn, should pull down lending rates by an additional 75 basis points by March 2014, atop the 50-75 basis points cut this fiscal. ...........

Read - ET

ICAI, RBI to soon discuss accounting standards for banking cos

Accounting regulator ICAI will soon hold discussions with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on implementation of IFRS standards by banking companies. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has also submitted a tentative roadmap for IFRS implementation to the Corporate Affairs Ministry...........

Read - HBL

Deepening India’s bond markets

.........The Chakravarty committee of 1984 had recommended HTM only to protect banks from large capital losses on their SLR holdings, in the event of interest rates rising with its recommended move to market rates. Today, we are seeing two-way movement of interest rates. Yet, fears about the impact of removing HTM on bank balance sheets and on government borrowings continue to be voiced. The SLR, as the Narasimham Committee had pointed out, is meant only to satisfy a prudential requirement and not a government financing function. The new Basel III regulations will not allow it to be used for both. RBI Executor Director V.K. Sharma recently noted how a large IRS (interest rate swaps) market has developed, which is, however, dominated by foreign banks. They account for 80 per cent of notional principal amount outstanding here, whereas the public sector banks have barely a 2 per cent market share.......

Read - HBL

Chidu-nomics - the threat within

......Two stains on his UPA-I years were liberal use of off-Budget special subsidy bonds to make the official fiscal deficit look better than it was and the infamous farm loan waiver. Also, Mr Chidambaram initially resisted the sage advice of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to restrict foreign borrowing by Indian companies. In the end, however, the then RBI Governor Y V Reddy got his way and saved India from a financial earthquake that could have dwarfed the 1991 crisis........

Read | Business Standard

Why Chidu and Subbu do not have much control over fiscal defici

.......What this entire story tells us is that the likes of P Chidambaram and D Subbarao have far lesser control over the Indian economy and the fiscal deficit of the government, their attempts to prove otherwise notwithstanding. So as long as the Western world continues to print money, prices of oil and gold will continue to remain high. Hence,  Indians will continue to buy gold and the oil bill will continue to remain high.

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New Bank Chiefs’ NPA Obsession seen Eroding Profits

...........“Perhaps bank chairmen want to take tough decisions very early in their tenure so that they can show good results progressively,” ..............

Read - ET

Ill-behaved Indian borrowers will now find it tough to hide from authorities

....... Even some young borrowers, such as students, default, in their first relationship with a bank. Today, gross NPAs in education loans are over seven per cent of advances. As that number is rising, banks are going slow on education loans. Former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had even proposed a credit guarantee fund to compensate the banks, but it never materialised for lack of budgetary allocation. RBI Deputy Governor K.C. Chakrabarty highlighted the problem of student loan defaults during a lecture at the Noida-based JRE School of Management last year. "I suggest school alumni associations should become active in inculcating ethics and values among students," he said........

Read - Business Today

Sen Likely to Take Over as NSC Chief

.......The appointment comes at a time when the Central Statistics Office is facing criticism from the finance ministry for supposedly underestimating economic (GDP) growth numbers.............

Read - ET